This invention relates to dentistry in general, and more particularly to a dental retaining splint for the reinforcement of dentition and especially for use with anterior teeth.
The use of dental splints is a highly specialized field of dentistry. Such splints are utilized for the reinforcement and retention of teeth within the mouth. Most prior art splints and their application have serious limitations, such as the requirement that the securing pins for the splint must be disposed in horizontal parallelism. Other restrictions required the need for involved and complicated procedures in the preparation of the teeth and utilization of special equipment in order to suitably position the splint.
An improved dental retaining splint which avoids such problems was presented in the aforementioned copending parent application and the continuation-in-part of the parent application, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,216. The parent application describes a dental retaining splint having an elongated bar-like member with a series of tubular members sequentially extending therefrom.
The tubular members have axial openings extending therethrough. The body member has a substantially H-shaped configuration. The splint is first temporarily held in a channel formed in adjacent teeth with the tubular members extending upwardly from the teeth. The tubular members have axial openings therethrough and such axial openings are used as guides for a drill to form pilot holes in the teeth. The splint is then removed and the pilot holes function as lead holes for the formation of enlarged bores to receive the tubular members therein. The splint is then repositioned so that the tubular members are now disposed downwardly into the bores formed therefor. An inlay fills the channel and covers the splint in the final procedure step.
Accordingly, the dental splint is used both in the formation of the bores in the teeth, as well as for use as the splint itself for insertion into the bores. The dental splint therefore has an upward and a reverse position. One of these positions permits the utilization of the retaining splint as a jig for the drilling of the holes, and subsequently, by inverting the splinting device, it is used in its other position as the actual retaining splint for permanent retention in the teeth.
The particular shape described in the aforementioned copending application has general use within the mouth area. However, it is most convenient for use in posterior teeth, such as the bicuspids and the molars. With these teeth, the occlusal surfaces are wide enough to receive the splinting device. Furthermore, the buccal and lingual heights are substantially the same so that the height of the front and rear walls of the splint can be substantially the same.
A problem, however, arises in connection with the anterior teeth where the labial and lingual surfaces come to a rather sharp incisal tip. As a result, there is sufficient width at the top of these teeth to support the formation of a channel thereacross whereby the channel must be formed at a lower level on these teeth. Furthermore, a channel formed along one of the side surfaces, such as the lingual surface, would provide for a channel having one wall thereof shorter than the other wall, and accordingly, the splint shape of the aforementioned parent application would not be conveniently received in such anterior teeth.
This problem concerning the use of the dental retaining splint in the anterior teeth covers both the right and left central incisors, the lateral incisors, as well as the cuspids. However, another problem exists when desiring to place a dental splint which should span across both the cuspid and the first bicuspid. Although the first bicuspid can receive a channel along its occlusal surface and can receive a splint of the type described in the aforementioned parent application, the adjacent cuspid could not readily receive such splint, and the channel formed therein would not correspond to the channel in the bicuspid. Because of the angled lingual surface of the cuspid, the channel formed therein would have one wall higher than the other wall while the channel formed in the adjacent bicuspid would have both walls of the channel substantially the same height. Therefore, when scanning across teeth extending between the anterior and posterior sections of the dentition, there is again a difficulty in utilizing the specific structure of the dental retaining device of the aforementioned parent application.
Another problem which occurs when using the prior art splints is that frequently it may be desired to have stronger retention of the splint. The individual tubular members may not provide sufficient support in some cases and sturdier support is needed. At the same time, it is still beneficial to utilize the tubular shape for the splint supports since that facilitates the insertion procedure of the splints.